1997-09-09 04:00:00 PDT Sacramento -- California smokers could keep smoking in bars and card clubs at least through January 1999 under a bill passed yesterday by the Assembly and sent to an uncertain fate in the Senate.

State law says smoking in bars and card clubs must stop on Jan. 1, 1998, but the tobacco industry persuaded a bare majority of the Assembly that any halt would devastate saloons and card rooms.

"This is not comparable to restaurants. People go there to eat. They don't mind having to get up and go outside to the leper section and have a smoke," said Assemblyman Brett Granlund, R-Yucaipa, a smoker who revels in his personal knowledge of saloon life.

"At bars, you go to drink and smoke at the same time," he said. "You go to a bar to ingest toxins. What is it about that you don't get?"

"These businesses and these jobs deserve a chance to survive," said Assemblyman Ed Vincent, D- Inglewood, who shepherded the bill through the Assembly for Hollywood Park racetrack and casino, the biggest employers in his district. "This is about jobs. It is not about tobacco."

"We are impinging on the freedom of a person to operate a business," said Papan. "No one in here has to frequent a bar where there's smoking. We don't need a law."

Opponents claimed that smoking in bars was hazardous to both nonsmoking patrons as well as employees.

The tobacco industry faces a tough task in getting the bill to Governor Pete Wilson. Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer, D- Hayward, said the bill would be sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing because of the changes made to it in the Assembly.

"Not good," was how Lockyer assessed the bill's chance of being approved by that committee.

Said Senator John Burton, D- San Francisco: "Given the way members of the committee voted in the past, it could well be an uphill fight for the tobacco lobbyists."

The smoking bill was one of dozens of bills acted on by the Legislature as it began the hectic last week of the 1997 legislative session.

Another target of Lockyer's wrath is a bill passed by the Assembly that would give a tax break backed by Wilson to Gap Inc. as an inducement to build a huge distribution center in Fresno, hometown of Bustamante.

The measure breezed off the Assembly floor, 58 to 3, to the Senate, where Lockyer has promised to shelve the measure. "I'm certain it doesn't have the votes to pass in my house," Lockyer said.

Fresno lawmakers and city officials are in competition with Reno for the $40 million warehouse, which will employ about 200 people when completed.

The bill by Senator Ken Maddy, R-Fresno, would allow tax breaks that legislative analysts estimate will reduce state revenues by $62 million over the next four years.

State tax law grants a 6 percent credit against income and bank and corporation taxes for manufacturers that buy specified manufacturing equipment. Maddy's bill would expand the credit to equipment used in warehouses.

"I recognize that Senator Lockyer is philosophically opposed to the bill," Bustamante said through a spokesman. "But we're not giving up. We are working toward an amicable resolution that will ensure that jobs stay in California, where they belong."

The Assembly also passed a bill that would create a system of Internet access to campaign contributions starting with the primary election in 2000. The system is to be created by the secretary of state at a cost of $1 million.

The vote was 71 to 3 to return the measure by Senator Betty Karnette, D-Long Beach, to the Senate for consideration of amendments.

Currently, campaign contributions are only filed in paper reports. Those reports are only available at county offices for candidates within a county, while financial reports for statewide candidates are available only in selected cities.